Thundercat has 2 Bay Area shows

To hear Thundercat tell it, he would have been happy being the man behind the star.

Starting as a member of Southern California punk group Suicidal Tendencies, then working with Erykah Badu, he’s been a steady hand and creative force behind the scenes for several artists. He’s even won a Grammy for such work, thanks to his collaboration with fellow Angeleno Kendrick Lamar for several tracks on “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

But it was one of his collaborators, producer and Brainfeeder record label founder Flying Lotus, who had the idea to put him at the front of the stage.

“I’m a person that is very much excited at the idea of music being created, and the different things you can do with it. (Working solo was) just not something I had thought about before,” Thundercat says. “There was definitely a notion given to me by Flying Lotus that I should try to do that. And I just went with it.”

Three albums in, the bassist has built a catalog of solo work that earns him spots at festivals such as this year’s Outside Lands, has him performing on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” (with Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, no less) and now, beginning a 47-date, six-month world tour that includes two stops in the Bay Area this weekend, opening for Beck on Friday, July 14, at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre and headlining his own show at the Independent in San Francisco on Saturday, July 15.

His latest album “Drunk,” a 23-song collection (with most of the tracks not breaking the three-minute mark), may be the most rounded portrait of Thundercat he has released to this point. There’s “A Fan’s Mail (Tron Song Suite II),” a tribute to his cat Tron and the feline life in general, complete with chorus meows. It’s on the same album as “The Turn Down,” a wide-ranging meditation on consumerism, the environment and Black Lives Matter (assisted ably by Pharrell Williams). As it should, comedy resides right next to pathos.

“You have to laugh at most of the stuff that happens, because other than that you end up crying, ’cause it’s pretty sad,” says Thundercat, with a chuckle.

That humor, that pain and everything in between is on full display with a unique openness and a vulnerability. There aren’t many singers this year who will record an ode to Tokyo (with lines like “gonna blow all my cash on anime”) and follow it with a 70-second song about avoiding police brutality, in between Mortal Kombat and Captain Planet references. But according to Thundercat, that sense of displaying the good, bad and ugly of himself and the world comes naturally.

“Hanging out with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, it’s a thing about the honesty in the music,” he says. “It’s always a struggle for a person to be honest about stuff sometimes in general, (but) I felt it very easy with music because my whole life has been spent making music.”

That lifelong obsession with music started with his family. Thundercat, born Stephen Bruner, is one of three siblings, each of whom has gone on to play instruments professionally. Ronald Bruner Jr. played drums alongside Thundercat in Suicidal Tendencies and lent his talents to artists like Q-Tip, Kimbra and Stanley Clarke, before releasing his debut album this year. Brother Jameel had his handprints — and his keyboards — all over the critically acclaimed third record, “Ego Death,” from the Internet.

And while they might not be blood relatives, Thundercat’s “family” extends to a collective of childhood friends and collaborators who are, together and individually, having a moment: There’s saxophone player Kamasi Washington, whose debut “The Epic” was widely considered one of the top jazz albums of 2015 and is now making appearances on award show tributes (see his solo on George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” at this year’s BET Awards); and pianist Cameron Graves’ debut album this year has received strong reviews.

“These are all my friends that I grew up with,” Thundercat says. “I’m happy to see everybody progress in their own manners and getting a chance to be themselves. We are different people. Together we work in many different ways, but at the same time, everybody has their own personality, their own side of music to offer. People love to try to put things in a box — ‘this is the sound of this’ — but it’s not like that. Everyone’s got something different.”

Even while out on his own tour, Thundercat still can’t help but think about collaborations and is excited to be on the same bill as Beck on Friday.

“I am a huge Beck fan, straight up and down,” he says. “That’s somebody I’ve wanted to work with for years. There’s only one Beck. You’ve got people who try to get in that weird place, and it’s like, ‘Nah, that’s his spot.’”

With works like “Drunk,” Thundercat may be developing his own “spot” as well.